1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to restaurant billfolds of the type used to present a customer a check and receive payment, and more particularly to a billfold with visible signaling capabilities that allow a customer to alert a server when the payment is ready to be collected.
2. Description of Related Art
It is well known in the art of establishments that serve food and beverages such as bars, restaurants, diners, and the like, to present the check at the end of the meal in a foldable billfold or check presenter that encloses the bill and includes pockets for receiving the payment. Such billfolds are favored because they are discrete, and can also serve as a notice to the customer that the server will collect the payment at the table, rather than at a register or some other location. These billfolds traditionally comprise a leather or plastic cover that encloses a stiff web, such as might be constructed of cardboard or the like. The covers form two complimentary halves that are connected at a spine and fold together in a book-like arrangement. A pocket that is shaped and sized to receive a portion of a standard size credit card is often provided that permits the credit card to partially protrude outside of the billfold. Sleeves or pockets may also be included to enclose the check and retain currency should that form of payment be selected. However, when cash or other currency is used to pay the bill, there is typically nothing in the appearance of the billfold that indicates to the server that it is ready to be collected.
An issue that comes up repeatedly with the use of such restaurant billfolds is the timing of its retrieval by the server. Typically after dropping off the bill, the server will tend to other matters to allow the patron to finish the meal, continue conversations, and so forth. After some time has passed, the server may approach the customer to collect the payment of the check before the customer has had an opportunity to review the bill and select the proper payment. The premature attempt to collect the bill payment can be embarrassing to the customer as well as the server, and cause the customer to interrupt his meal or conversation to attend to the payment of the bill. Alternatively, the server having already attempted to collect the bill once and been premature may error on the side of caution and prolong the period of the next attempt, leading to the customer unnecessarily waiting an extended period for the server to collect his payment.
The customer may also wait unnecessarily long for the server if the customer is ready to pay but the server is unaware or preoccupied. The server may wait for a designated period of time after leaving the check to allow the customer ample time to review the bill and finish the meal. In many cases the server may wait until the customer signals that he is ready to have the billfold collected, but the customer may be unaware that the server is waiting for him. The customer may be in a hurry to leave the restaurant and wish to promptly pay the bill at the earliest opportunity. In short, there is often times a lack of communication between the customer and the server in regards to the collection of the check at the end of the meal, and such lack of communication can result in an unfavorable impression of the establishment and a bad experience for the consumed meal. In this vein, the prior art lacks a discrete and convenient means of signaling to the server both the readiness of the customer to have the bill payment collected as well as the potential urgency of the customer""s preference to have the transaction completed with alacrity.
The present invention is a restaurant billfold with an illuminated signaling system on the billfold""s exterior that permits a restaurant patron to notify his server when the billfold is ready to be collected, and can preferably further communicate to the server an urgency through a differentiation of the illumination (such as a hastening of the illumination blinking or a change in the illumination intensity) between a normal pick-up mode and an urgent pick-up mode. The present invention preferably comprises a standard restaurant billfold modified with a manually actuated pressure sensitive illuminating beacon disposed on an exterior surface thereof that sends a signal visible to a nearby server or staff employee that the billfold is ready to be picked up and payment is enclosed inside.
In a more preferred embodiment the illuminating beacon comprises a bracket and base plate combination that cooperate to house an illumination source and power supply therebetween. In this embodiment, the bracket housing the illumination source is disposed on the outer surface of the billfold and includes spacing posts that pass through the billfold panel to secure the bracket to the billfold. The base plate is disposed at a complimentary position on the inner surface of the billfold adjacent the spacing posts. Fasteners or rivets preferably connect the back plate to the front bracket at corresponding holes in the spacing posts to secure the bracket and back plate together into a fixed unit.
The bracket on the outside surface of the billfold includes a window or void to expose an illumination source that serves as the signaling means for the present invention. The illumination source radiates light through the void or window so as to be readily viewed from twenty to thirty feet away. The window can be a lens that helps to disperse or focus the light emanating from the illumination source, or the window can be a void in the bracket that simply permits light to escape and radiate normally. In a preferred embodiment the illumination source can be programmed to blink or otherwise include two intensities or colors to reflect multiple states of urgency of the restaurant patron. The illumination source preferably cooperates with a circuit board that controls the switching and illumination modes of the light, where the illumination source physically resides on top of the circuit board and electrical power is supplied through the circuit board to the illumination source.
The circuit board is preferably shaped to correspond to the shape of the illumination source, such that the illumination source and the circuit board have mating surfaces that facilitate their electrical contact and physical cooperation. The circuit board is preferably seated on a disk-shaped battery that powers both the circuit board and the illumination source. A mechanical or electrical switch on the circuit board makes and breaks contact between the power supply and the illumination source to actuate and extinguish the light therefrom based upon manual pressure applied to the illumination source. That is, the illumination source is controlled by the circuit board and actuated by pressing on the illumination source lens. In this manner, a patron can depress the illumination source and actuate the signaling function of the present invention. Additional pressing can, in a preferred embodiment, cycle through various alternate signaling functions such as blinking, a change in intensity or color, or some other variation in the standard signaling mode.